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Do you have an elderly parent who wants to know how a movie ended because he fell asleep in the middle. Have you ever watched a movie and wondered, Isn’t there a place I can find out where I have seen that actress before? Do you want to find a way to check on whether a movie is appropriate for your teen at home or an older grandchild? Thanks to the internet, those are all definite options! With this list, you will find that you can save time, make great decisions, and look like a bit of a Super Hero to your elderly relatives. (Your kids might disagree if you’ve had to say no to their show pick. 🙂 )
The Movie Spoiler – www.themoviespoiler.com – As I’ve mentioned previously, this is one of my favorite sites. When Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscars last night, my mom had never heard of it and I had barely heard of it. (Can you tell we don’t go to the movies much.) Thanks to this site, I was able to give her a multi-page description of the movie. Since she waits until they hit regular channels to watch them, she’ll have forgotten the ending by then, but for now she gets to enjoy seeing what all the excitement is about. They have info for all the new movies and a large archive of older movies. They do tell the ending, so if you or your loved ones don’t like that, be sure to “edit” the last paragraph or 10.
IMDB – www.imdb.com – This is another very useful tool for researching movies. It lists cast members with links to other movies and shows they’ve been in, brief descriptions, and other useful bits of information, including the rating of the movie. I find that invariably, after I’ve been to a movie, as soon as I get home, I go to IMDB to see why I am SURE I’ve seen half those actors before. Of course, if I’m out with a friend who has an iPhone, we just look it up right there!
ScreenIt Entertainment Reviews for Parents – http://www.screenit.com/ – I used this site extensively when my kids were teens. It gives excellent descriptions, ratings, and information on the types of content in movies, music, and videos. In addition to a basic description of the movie/video itself, they give ratings for a wide variety of topics that would be of special interest to parents such as alcohol/drug use, blood/gore, disrespectful/bad attitude, frightening/tense scenes, guns/weapons, profanity, imitative behavior, music – scary/tense, inappropriate, profanity – how much, sex/nudity, smoking, tense family scenes, violence, and more. They offer an annual membership of $24.95 with ad-free content and several subscriber-only options, but they also still offer a free service. Just scroll down to the very bottom, click No, and that lets you into the free site. I would definitely encourage you to try the free site to check it out. If you then find that you are using it often, I think it would be well worthwhile to subscribe to it.
With these three sites in your online arsenal, you’ll be well prepared next time a family member asks you a “movie-ing question!”
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